Ecologists have often recognized, and sometimes attempted to name and characterize, zonation of the shoreline sandy habitats for land plants. For convenience, two zones are used here (following Barbour and coworkers): (1) leading edge of the beach, and (2) inner beach and foredune (embryo dune) up to start of stabilized dunes. Obviously, the zones are not sharply defined, because some species appear in both subcommunities.
Plants successful in the leading edge must be able to tolerate higher salt spray and impacts of storm or high sea-produced saltwater overwash. Diversity of species is, for this reason, much lower within the leading edge.
There are many subtle differences in strand vegetation produced on windward versus leeward sides of dunes. A particular plant species may create a microhabitat that either favors or discourages other species from growing nearby.